Posted by: daw () on Tue Dec 7 23:21:46 2004

Hi All
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> In the late 1980’s I purchased one of the first VCR’s that had frame-by-frame capabilities. I immediately saw it would be a great tool for studying the mechanics of the baseball swing and started taping Major League games from TV broadcasts.
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> When I first studied each frame of the swing, I realized I did not have a clue what I was looking for, or what constituted good or poor mechanics. I decided the best way to learn would be to take notes on the differences I saw between the great hitters and average hitters.
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> After a couple of weeks or so, I reviewed my notes and found a disturbing pattern in my writing. The more I read the more it become apparent that I was trying to make what I saw conform to my long held batting principles. It also became apparent that if I was to make a serious study of the swing, I must record my observations with a completely open mind.
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> When I started my study, I made a sign and placed it over my desk. It read " Have no preconceived theory, report only what you observe." Mike Epstein makes the point well with his question, “Do we actually teach what we see.” – I am going to discuss a couple of clips from Nick’s site regarding the “Torque vs Crack of the Whip controversy. You can draw your own conclusions, I only asked that you watch with an open mind.
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> The first clip (http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/HandPath/) (The SHP clip) is of a test I ran to show the bat’s reaction to being accelerated from a straighter hand-path where the accelerating force is applied at a single point (no torque applied by the hands).
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> The second clip (http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/HandstoBall/Linear05.mpg ) is of a batter extending his hands (applying force at two points on the handle) in basically the same path as the test I ran.
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> The “Crack of the Whip” theory would say that torque was not a factor. That once the hands slowed near full extension, just like a whip, the bat-head comes flying around. Forces applied at the handle by the hands had no roll in accelerating the bat-head. --- The opposing view is that torque applied at the handle from the top-hand being extended past the slower moving bottom hand is what caused the bat-head to come around.
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> Study the clips closely and draw your own conclusions.
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> Jack Mankin
> ##
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> Because the hand-path clips were taken down for a couple days, I gave a short discription of them below.
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> >> I just tried the (http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/HandstoBall/Linear05.mpg) clip and it is still up. However, the (http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/HandPath/) clips have been taken down. They were up when I made the post. I suppose Nick has his reasons for deleting them at this time.
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> The deleted clips were from our Instructional Video. The first showed how a circular force (CHP) applied at a single point causes the bat-head to accelerate in the swing plane. Some now refer to this as a “double-pendulum” effect.
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> The second clip shows that if the single point is accelerated in a straighter path (linear), there is little to no angular bat-head acceleration from a “whip” or a “double-pendulum” effect. <<
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> As of yet, not one dissenter has declared whether or not they think the bat speed generated in “straighter hand-path” clip resulted from the “Crack of the Whip” theory or torque applied at the handle.
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> Jack Mankin


>>> I coach 12 fourteen-year-old softball players. I have always coached "rotational" hitting, but discovered the "theory" of top-hand torque recently on this site. Counter-intuitive at first, but after I tried it out for myself with a bat (played a lot of baseball at a relatively high level) I got the "feel" of it and became a believer. We have spent the last three months working on almost nothing except top hand torque, which we call "spinning the hands", AS AN ADD-ON TO ROTATIONAL MECHANICS WE ALREADY TEACH. We have seen huge, immediate leaps in bat speed and power in every single one of our players. Our lead-off hitter, a tiny kid who came to us as a slapper, took one to the fence in our last tournament. Our big bats are taking the ball way deep.

I am on Nylan's site every day (and many others). The 'dissenters' believe in rotation and torque (the argument with this site on those points is "angels on the head of a pin"). However, they aggressively dispute the existence of THT. Fine. The proving ground is the playing field, not the web sites. THT is clearly an "add on"; why not try it with your players? Go with the results you see on the field.